Excerpt from The Strength in Knowingby I. Alan Appt Chapter 5 Belief Systems Then think of the planet perfectly suspended in space, at the exact proper distance from the sun. Any closer to the sun, and the planet would burn up. Any further away from the sun, and the planet would freeze. The earth is ninety-three million miles from the sun, and it takes light from the sun about eight minutes to reach the earth, at a speed of one hundred eighty-six thousand miles per second. The earth circles the sun at an approximate speed of sixty-seven thousand miles per hour, and at the same time, it rotates on its axis as it circles the sun. This in turn enables the surface of the earth to cool and warm evenly and properly. As far as scientists know at the moment, the earth is thus far the only known planet that has the exact correct atmospheric mixture of substances to sustain all our life forms. The atmosphere we enjoy today is dramatically different from the atmosphere that formed with the Earth billions of years ago. With time, the Earth’s life-giving atmosphere formed and is what we live with today: twenty-one percent oxygen, seventy-eight percent nitrogen, and about one percent argon and carbon dioxide. Everything on the planet currently remains in a state of consistent perfection, even when there are changes for human or other forms of life. Perfection remains as perfection in itself. When leaves turn color and fall, this is part of the trees’ natural process of evolution. Humans remain in perfection even with age and body changes. Our sun with its tremendous explosions from within, including solar flares, remains in perfection in and of itself. All entities in and of themselves with changes due to time continually remain in their own state of perfection for the current period in their existence. Think of the sunrise and the sunset and the way the moon rises and sets or how its phases change. Think of the ocean tides, of gravity, of the twenty-four hours between sunrise and sunset, or how water can change to ice and then back to water or to a vapor. Think of all natural occurrences that exist and continually change.